<p>I was just looking over my application and realized that on the Penn supplement to the common application, the essays about the autobiography and such are marked as “optional”. Will not doing one of these have an effect on your admissions decision? I’m thinking since Penn is a reach for me, and I am a good writer, I should probably do one of them, just to try to get as much edge as I can?</p>
<p>just write them</p>
<p>optional=screen to see if you're actually interested in the school</p>